Dems blast GOP attack ad featuring Mumua Abu-Jamal

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Pennsylvania's former governor on Monday blasted ads by the campaign arm for House Republicans that attempt to link a Democratic congressional candidate to convicted Philadelphia police killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

The National Republican Congressional Committee's website, mailers and automated telephone calls last month connected Kathy Boockvar to Abu-Jamal, who is behind bars for the 1981 murder of police Officer Daniel Faulkner.

Former Gov. Ed Rendell, who was the district attorney when Abu-Jamal was prosecuted, said the ads prey on people's fears instead of discussing issues.

"It's the worst type of politics," Rendell said at a news conference with Boockvar and Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, a Democrat. "It's the type of politics that has all sorts of overtones. It's sleazy. It's disgraceful ... absolutely disgusting."

Boockvar is challenging incumbent Republican, U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, for the 8th District congressional seat in suburban Philadelphia.

"Congressman Fitzpatrick has said he has nothing to do with the ad but refuses to denounce it," Rendell said. "And that is, in my judgment, cowardice and it is a character flaw that voters of this congressional district ought to take very, very seriously."

A spokeswoman for the Fitzpatrick campaign did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday. NRCC spokesman Nat Sillin defended the ads and suggested Rendell "do some soul searching."

Boockvar alleged the ads employed "scare and lie tactics" to distract voters from her opponent's voting record, which she said is aligned with tea party conservatives and is harmful to the middle class, the elderly and women.

The NRCC in the ads contend that Boockvar's husband, an attorney, represented a witness in the Abu-Jamal case who 20 years later recanted her testimony and once did legal work for a protester -- a literary agent who counted Abu-Jamal among her clients -- arrested at a "Free Mumia" event.

The nonpartisan FactCheck.org, in its review of the claims, said the "NRCC gets the facts right. But they don't amount to much more than guilt by association."

Boockvar, Rendell and Williams did not argue that any fact in the ads was untrue but said they add up to a gross misrepresentation of the candidate.

"Kathy Boockvar's husband accusing the Philadelphia police of pressuring witnesses to the murder of Officer Faulkner is not disgusting, but making note of that fact is?" Sillin said Monday. "Some things are just not worth defending, even if party loyalty seems to require it."

He said Rendell should "take a closer look at the facts and do some soul searching."

Williams said he believed race-based fear was a target of the ads, along with promoting general concern over urban crime and violence to voters in the suburban congressional district.

"If this is the best they've got, this is idiotic and everyone should vote for her," said Williams, who compared the ads to the "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" game that tries linking the actor to anyone else within six acquaintances.

He called the ads "disgusting, as a person who has to deal with this Mumia garbage as a prosecutor."

Abu-Jamal lost his last legal appeal in April when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected his challenge regarding forensic evidence in the racially charged case. The onetime Black Panther was found guilty in 1982 of fatally shooting the white officer. He spent nearly 30 years on death row before a judge ordered a new sentencing hearing. Prosecutors in December agreed to allow him to serve a life sentence.